Novel progress in the molecular motor assembly of a biomimetic system

(Nanowerk News) Active biological molecules and functional structures can be fabricated into a bio-mimetic system by using molecular assembly method. Such materials can be used for the drug delivery, disease diagnosis and therapy, and new nanodevice construction. With the financial supports of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, researchers with the CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid Interface Science and Chemical Thermodynamics and their colleagues with the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces have made progress in the molecular motor assembly of a biomimetic system. The work has been published in the recent issue of Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2007 46 6996-7000).

A scheme of a CFoF1/lipid modified microcapsule and ATP biosynthesis as a function of reaction time (Image: CAS)

They also reported a novel biomimetic system with the assembly of FoF1 ATPase in lipid-modified microcapsules. The well-defined microcapsules may serve as containers for the storage of the synthesized ATP as an energy currency. By using this system it becomes possible to study the function of ATPase as a biomimetic unit in detail. Furthermore, the synthesized ATP could be released from the assembled capsules to provide energy on demand. Hence a micrometer-size energy-storage device has been built up.